The roll-call of poets set by Wolf reads like a Baedecker to high romantic
German poetry and includes Goethe, Möricke, Heyse and Eichendorff.

The song with orchestra is a genre the span of which is little appreciated.
While people know the Strauss songs (there are many beyond the Four Last
Songs) and those by Mahler how many know these by Wolf or the host by
Josef Marx, by Hans Pfitzner, Franz Schreker or Zemlinsky? Further afield
there are orchestral songs by Delius (note recent Danacord collection), Grieg,
Sibelius and, most significant in their spiritual affinity with the exotic
Wolf, the songs of Granville Bantock.

The Orfeo collection is extremely valuable and one is left wanting more.
After all, according to the note-writer, Wolf fully orchestrated 24 songs.
There are 17 here and five of those are orchestrations by other composers
including bass, Kim Borg. Max Reger orchestrated four of Wolf's songs (only
one featured here) as well as 29 by other composers (Brahms, Grieg, Schumann
and Schubert).

Prometheus (at 8.11, the longest song here) is more of an operatic
scena, heroic, tragic and storm-riven. It is ringingly sung in all its Wagnerian
splendour. Operatic parallels of a different stamp are also to be found in
the Don Giovanni sentiments and vivid characterisation of Herz,
Verzage nicht geschwind from the Spanisches Liederbuch. The lighter
tone is probably closer to the comic opera Der Corregidor (after Alarcon's
'Three-Cornered Hat' - the same novel that inspired the de Falla ballet).
Grand romantic opera returns to ruffle and shake the stern setting of Der
Freund. Fallibility and fragility show amid the magnificence of the great
baritone's voice during moments of high passion. These songs are perhaps
an insight into the unfinished opera Manuel Venegas.

The three Goethe Harfenspieler are tenderly shaped with a predictably
prominent role for the harp as also in the prayer-like Gesang Weylas.
I was set thinking of Bantock's Sappho Fragments (Hyperion).
Fischer-Dieskau is extremely affecting, singing with obvious intelligence
and sensitivity in the many less dramatic songs such as the beautiful Gebet
where a solo violin accompanies him as if carried over from the Bruch
violin concerto (No. 1) or the Beethoven. The same can be said of his (and
the orchestra's) way with Sterb 'ich. The Schubertian bounce of Denk
'es and Fussreise contrasts with the negation and gloom of
Seufzer. The first two of the three Michelangelo Lieder are
typically downbeat, not to say depressive, but a welcome lighter note is
sustained amid the love-struck despair in the final Fuhlt meine seele.

A remarkable and unhackneyed selection tapping a rich and unexplored vein.
Would that Orfeo would now turn to Marx's orchestral songs. They are, going
by the handful I know, no less rewarding.

Good documentation and recording. Full texts and translations. Artistry of
excellent order from all concerned. Fischer-Dieskau in good voice though
clearly working hard and under strain when a helden-tone is demanded.

A highly recommendable disc for late romantic enthusiasts with an interest
in lieder.